The Charge

Explore the edges of the unknown.

The Case

In its fourth season, The Universe seemed a good candidate for
cancellation. The series still had some good episodes, but also seemed to
stretch for ideas with truly dreadful attempts at speculative episodes that
ended up looking like terrible Stargate ripoffs. Fortunately, this
season, the show has righted itself and returned to what it does best: science.
It still can't shed some of its more sensationalist trappings (which is
unfortunately increasingly true of pretty much all History shows), but at least
The Universe: The Complete Season Five has some genuine educational
content. It's not quite The Universe at its best but it's much better
than last season.

Here are the eight episodes compiled on two discs:

Disc One • "7 Wonders of the Solar
System" A listing of the seven most remarkable objects in our solar
system.

• "Mars: The New Evidence" New probes and
experiments have forced scientists to reconsider many theories they've held
about the possibility of life on Mars.

• "Magnetic Storm" The Sun regularly spews out
eruptions of solar plasma called Coronal Mass Ejections that are powerful enough
to cause mass destruction on Earth.

• "Time Travel" Though time travel has long been
thought to be impossible, new discoveries in physics have made scientists
consider how it could actually happen.

Disc Two • "Secrets of the Space
Probes" Space probes have been sent to explore various planets and
phenomena of the solar system, uncovering surprising results.

• "Asteroid Attack" Scientists have been studying
asteroids to discover how they could create disasters on Earth.

• "Total Eclipse" How the complex relationship
between the Earth, Sun, and Moon create a phenomenon that is unique even within
our solar system and possibly the galaxy.

• "Dark Future of the Sun" When the Sun finally
burns itself out, its death throes will lead to catastrophic changes throughout
the solar system, especially on Earth.

The first change that helps is that this season is only eight episodes long,
instead of thirteen as previous ones were. This means that the show no longer
has to stretch to fill time with the kind of speculative drivel that weakened
last season. Instead, the eight episodes seen here are more rooted in science,
with not much speculation. These are fascinating topics and the show treats them
reasonably well. Computer animations, actual NASA footage and photographs, and
interviews with scientists explain these topics more or less clearly. Some of
the examples and analogies used can be a bit simplistic, but that
understandable, since it's hard to tell just how extensive viewers' knowledge of
astronomy and physics is. For the most part, though, the show doesn't talk down
to viewers, so you'll find it entertaining and informative however much you
know.

Of course, it wouldn't be History without some occasional cheap
sensationalism. There are references to the end of all life on Earth scattered
throughout, particularly in the episodes about Coronal Mass Ejections, the last
days of the Sun, and asteroids. Why History feels the need to regularly scare
the bejesus out of its viewers is hard to say, but it clearly works wonders for
ratings, since they keep doing it over and over. There are even (sigh!)
references to 2012 and the Mayan calendar, which is apparently de rigueur for
all History shows, even the ones about loggers and ice road truckers. Viewers
will have to sit patiently and grit their teeth through these parts, which are
mercifully brief, and wait for their rewards, which come in the form of
interviews with the always enchanting NASA astrophysicist Dr. Amy Mainzer. Under
the circumstances, it's more than a fair trade.

This season of The Universe, then, is a step up from the last. If you
were alienated from the show because of some of the sillier and more speculative
episodes from last season, you can safely return, because there really aren't
any more of those this season. Still, it's hard to imagine what other
astronomical topics the show could cover, so it would be wise for History to
quit while it's ahead and cancel the series after this season. This fifth season
collection would be a worthy way for the show to go out on top.

Technical specs are typical History: non-anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer, Dolby
stereo mix, both nice if not dazzling. There are no extras.